ICID

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The International Center for Infectious Diseases is a European organization that works to prevent the spread of infectious diseases worldwide, with a special emphasis on Federated Europe. The ICID works to raise public awareness, to recommend and monitor health measures and regulations, and to combat infectious diseases through on-site actions, reasearch and development, and inspections of population centers and ports of entry.

The ICID maintains local centers in each Federated European state, with its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Each center is responsible for ICID activities within its own state, but there is a great deal of cooperation between centers, and staff frequently travel between or operate out of different centers depending on where their expertise is needed. The ICID itself is a Federal agency, and is not under the authority of any state.

ICID centers contain laboratories for identifying pathogens, whether from prepared samples or from other materials, including bodies of humans and animals or objects which may contain or be contaminated with a pathogen. Each center has at least one lab of biosafety levels 1 through 3. Berlin, Paris, and Lausanne each have level 4 containment and processing facilities. Centers are also equipped with special care facilities for the treatment of patients with exotic or dangerous diseases.

Field agents respond to reported or suspected occurrences of diseases when the pathogen poses a special risk. The ICID routinely cooperates with local health and law enforcement authorities in many capacities, including the use of field agent advisors, analysis of suspected pathogens, and expert testimony civil or criminal cases. Field agents also make random checks at ports of entry into Federated Europe, using swift, non-invasive techniques to check livestock, travellers, and cargo. These same techniques are used in major population centers, but are typically limited to major hospitals, bioindustry centers, and large schools.

Through the ICID, Federated Europe maintains a “Health and Safety Watch”, with health status and risk to the general population from pathogens given in color-coded levels: Green, Yellow, Orange, and Red. These levels correspond to mandated actions on the part of civil and military authorities in the affected regions, which can include the enforcment of travel restrictions, quarantines, and mandatory immunizations or hospitilization. Federated Europe is widely considered to have the most comprehensive public biosafety plan in the world, with clearly-defined directives and bi-annual exercises.

In other countries, the ICID provides advisors, assistance and funds. The agency has established several centers in developing nations which provide many of the same services as those in Federated Europe.